Static, time variant, and pulsed electric fields, with or without a magnetic field component, whether considered weak or intense for a particular application, are used in a variety of industries for a broad range of applications. In some existing applications, and where time variant applied voltages are used with the embodiments of the present invention, charge carriers may be moving relative to the lab frame so a magnetic B-field component accompanies the electric E-field, however, with the embodiments of the present invention, only the E-field is pertinent. Examples of E-field applications include, but are not limited to the following:                electrophoresis: both gel and capillary type employ an electrical current through suspension media, the resistive load, thus setting up an electric field used to separate, differentiate and fractionate DNA, proteins, and other molecules;        electroporation (aka electropermeabilization): intense electric fields, often pulsed with various waveforms and pulse rates, are used to cause the dielectric breakdown of living cellular membranes, thus affecting reversible and nonreversible poration and/or permeabilization for the purpose of transfection, pasteurization or sterilization; and        electric field flow fractionation (FFF, aka EFFF, μ-EFF, CyEFF, and others): employ an electric field orthogonal to a fluid flow in order to separate, fractionate, and differentiate large molecules and/or small particles from a subject liquid.        
Generally speaking, a process or effect driven, supported or facilitated by the action of an E-field can be accelerated or otherwise improved by either increasing the field intensity for a given applied voltage, or conversely, by reducing the applied voltage for a given field intensity. This is due to the relationship between the material properties of permittivity, volume resistivity, and maximum allowable field stress, and the effect these parameters have on the diacritical circuit elements of field intensity, dielectric breakdown, field geometry, current flow, and energy consumption. Applications proceeding under the influence or direct action of an E-field are often limited by the undesirable effects of ohmic heating, electrochemistry (faradaic charge transfer), field shielding by electrolytic double layer formation, electrode polarization, and energy consumption.
Electric current is a limiting factor for the applied filed intensity in electrophoretic, electroporation, and field flow fractionation devices due to ohmic heating of the working media (usually a liquid or gel for such applications), and undesirable electrochemistry at the media/electrode interface(s) (faradaic charge transfer). For example, much effort has been expended over the last two decades to apply the process of clinical electroporation (primarily used for transfection of living biological cells) to commercial isothermal pasteurization (commonly know as Pulsed Electric Field non-thermal pasteurization or PEF). Reversible electroporation is non-lethal and is accomplished by careful control of the applied field intensity and exposure time, where irreversible electroporation is marked by cellular death, metabolic inactivation, or apoptosis. Due to the low impedance nature of PEF systems, where bare conductive electrodes are coupled directly to the fluid under treatment, pulsed voltage waveforms have been employed as a means to reduce average energy, ohmic heating, and undesirable electrochemistry at the fluid/electrode interface. The same is true for electrophoresis and electric field flow fractionation (EFFF) methods and devices. Although an increase in field intensity would improve the efficiency and/or rate of process, increasing the applied voltage as a means to increase field intensity results in excessive electric current and the associated ohmic heating, undesirable electrochemical reactions, and the other undesirable reactions referenced above. In the case of EFFF, recent efforts have been made to reduce the fluid channel height using micromachining and microelectronic techniques thereby effectively reducing the field dimension between the electrodes and thus increasing field intensity while mitigating electric current flow. Since increasing the E-field intensity also requires an increase in the applied voltage, and/or a decrease in the distance between the electrodes, dielectric breakdown of the working media, whether a gas, liquid, or solid, is an additional limiting factor in all applications.
Although coating or juxtaposing common dielectric materials between traditional electrically conductive electrodes and the media under treatment allows higher voltage to be applied, implying a higher E-field intensity, the effect is offset by a much larger voltage drop across the dielectric material being used, thus lowering the E-field in the media under treatment. This occurs because of the manner in which voltage drops, and therefore the E-field, is divided or otherwise distributed in series capacitance networks.
It would be advantageous to develop a system for generating an E-field that significantly mitigates or completely resolves the undesirable effects of the previous systems and methods.